Friday, July 18, 2008

Brent Rinehart's Comic Book - I need a copy

OKLAHOMA CITY — Some Oklahoma County voters can expect to receive comic books in the mail soon, but the subject matter will have a serious tone.The 16-page publication prepared by Commissioner Brent Rinehart's re-election campaign lampoons gays and criticizes Rinehart's political opponents. It also features an angel who supports the embattled commissioner and Satan, who supports his critics."It's more or less a story of my experiences of the last four years of being the county commissioner of District 2," Rinehart told The Oklahoman, which obtained the comic on Wednesday.Toga-wearing gays, political figures, trench coat-clad henchmen, concerned residents and Rinehart make up the rest of the comic's characters.In one sequence, Satan says: "If I can get the kids to believe homosexuality is normal!" The angel replies: "Hey Satan, not with Brent around you won't!"

Someone has posted the entire comic book here. Do yourself a favor, hit the link. Please. You'll walk around happy and laughing for the rest of the day. I plan on getting to work bright and early this morning, so I can print a limited edition of this thing to mail anonymously to unsuspecting friends and family. I really can't tell you how much I love being alive in a time and place that produces stuff like this. Can you imagine being a resident of The Great State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma County, District #2, and finding a hybrid like this in your mailbox from your freakin' county roads commissioner?

The president of the company where I work, known on this site as Marvel Variants, is a comic book collector.

Mr. Variants, if these things show up on Ebay, guess what you're getting for Christmas this year? You'll be one of the few collectors to own a Volume #1, Issue #1 from the Stan Lee of the Oklahoma County, District #2 Roads Department. (Oklahoma readers - please email me if you can get your hands on an autographed copy, good condition, in a plastic sleeve. Mailing label and postmark are ok, since they help guarantee authenticity. I'll pay more than market value.)

A few things worthy of comment:

-The AP article says that it took Rinehart two months to write this epic.

- Notice that the phrase "Liberal Good Ol' Boys" is used several times. I didn't know they existed. I know lots of liberals, and lots of Good Ol' Boys, but they aren't the same people.

- Rinehart is involved in some kind of campaign finance lawsuit. His job is to keep the roads in good repair, and to build new ones. Therefore, the comic book is about gays, Satan, liberals, the cross at the county fairgrounds, and pedifiles (sic).

- I'll admit to throwing up some goofy spelling, grammar, and sentence structure on this site. I usually post things in a hurry. However, I'm not trying to defend myself in a lawsuit. I'm not printing my drivel and mailing it to every voter in my home county. Couldn't Rinehart find a talented seventh-grader to spellcheck that thing?

- If you don't get a kick out of the drawings of toga-clad, pan-flute playing, limp-wristed gay protesters, then there's obviously no room for joy and happiness in your life. I've known several gays and lesbians from Oklahoma, and none of them dressed like refugees from a pastoral poem.

Here's more from the AP article: "I do not know who the good ol' boys at the courthouse are," said County Assessor Leonard Sullivan, a Republican who has had public disagreements with Rinehart."I've really encouraged him on more than one occasion to get professional help. He really needs it," said Sullivan, who is not depicted in the comic.

If Brent Rinehart were to receive professional help, he'd be like Faulkner without alcohol or Hunter S. Thompson without drugs. Would Van Gogh have done any interesting paintings if he had gotten professional help? I hope Rinehart declines any treatment so the world can have more of his work. God made plenty of talented writers, gifted artists, and people who can spell.

Update from July 24th. I've gotten about a jillion hits from this thing, so maybe someone can help me.... This would be the ideal collectors item. Is there anyone at the courthouse who could get one autographed by Drew Edmondson, Jim Roth, Sheriff Whetsel (with the pencil-thin moustache), Jim Dickinson, Brian Maughn, and J.D. Johnston? For historians, would this not be worth its weight in gold?

The comic book is hilarious, and I myself have had several hours of chortling over it.

But I am also from Oklahoma City - and I can tell you that this does NOT represent the worldview of the vast majority of Oklahomans or Republicans - as evidenced by the many quotes from Oklahoma public officials (Republicans included) and academics who rightly condemn Rinehart. The Oklahoman, OKC's flagship newspaper, condemned the comic book in a scathing editorial this week, calling it "16 pages of tripe."

Rinehart is a mentally-disturbed narcissist with a penchant for pencil mustaches and corruption, and his (few) supporters are very unbalanced people. He is not indicative of Oklahoma City - any more than the nutty Dallas County Commissioner in Texas who accused a person who used the term "black hole" of being racist is indicative of Texas.

Oklahoma City is a thriving metroplex of more than a million people (named by Forbes as among the top 10 recession proof cities, while a suburb, Norman, was named the 6th best small city in America by Money Magazine last week).

I also hope that those with an axe to grind against Christianity will not somehow take this comic book as indicative of a Christian worldview. Frankly, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. This is a theologically-bankrupt work, if I may put it bluntly. Christians do not believe in a little midget-man Satan with a pitch fork, nor in malnourished angels with magic wands - any more than we believe heaven is filled with angels playing harps (see C.S. Lewis for a better explication of this). That’s a caricature of a caricature of a caricature. Nor do the vast majority of Christians spend their lives looking for a "homosexual conspiracy" everywhere.

If you’re an atheist, and wish to dispute Christianity, I would not use this comic book for the foundation of your arguments. It is not at all a representation of Christian beliefs - but is instead the product of a diseased mind.

One aspect of this “comic book” requires a little background - the references to “liberal good ol’ boys”: You should know that the Oklahoma was controlled by a one-party corrupt Democratic machine for its first century (the state just celebrated the centennial). This only has recently changed, but Rinehart is playing on old superstitions about corrupt Democrats who ran the state for so long - and literally almost ran the state into the ground because of a longstanding culture of Democratic corruption.

Oklahoma Anonymous,Thanks for the comment. My primary objective in this post was to make my own home state of Mississippi look good in comparison to Oklahoma.

While I'm not an atheist (Borgian Baptist would probably be accurate....see Spritual Advisors in the blogroll) I firmly believe that the comic book is an accurate reflection of a certain strain of conservative/fundamentalist Christianity. Rinehart was making a crude appeal to "values voters" by referencing issues that had nothing to do with the condition of Oklahoma's county roads, and everything to do with tribal "saved vs damned" tribal bonds. Having grown up in the Yellow Dog Democrat Deep South, I'm aware of the traditional corruption of that party. I break out into giggles whenever people discuss the role of Dems in the Civil Rights era - especially the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. And don't get me started on which party has been traditionally associated with the Klan. Just judging from his website and the comic book, I honestly didn't think Rinehart would be sharp enough to play the "Liberal Good Ol' Boy" card. I bet there haven't been many of those in Oklahoma for a while.

As an Oklahoman, I am mortified. Not just because this is so offensive to gay people, but also because, frankly, it makes us look like dumb asses. The country was just starting to forget about the ignorant comments of Sally Kern's and now this. By the way, did you know Sally got caught sneaking a gun onto Capitol Hill?

Gosh as for the homosequals, yes homosexuality and pedophilia are identical just like communism and socialism are the same things. So he is good on that point. But as for mirage is between "one man and one woman" fine but however, I believe people should Stay With Their Own Kind everone happier that way. (Oh not popular with liberal's but think again.) Thus a "gay" (ugh) man should not marry a heterosezual woman make her unhappy and the children, they should Marry Each Other keep them off the street's thus.So he is questionable there. Now as for the "red-headed, color-blind snuff-takers" in our midst, there is his next challenge down the rode...

Holy cow. Is this guy for real? I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred, and I'm proud of it--even while living here in Tarrant County. But when knuckleheads like this guy and Sally Kern crawl out from under their rocks and start spewing their bile, I think it embarrasses every Okie from Will Rogers to Wayne Coyne. I know my jaw dropped when I saw it.

I love what Rinehart said when CNN asked him about the misspellings: "I don't necessarily care."

Pretty much sums him up right there, I think.

(Allen, I think you oughta prepare for a lot more site traffic now that the great Leonard Pitts has written about this jackass.)

Oklahoma City needs to do a lot of PR and cleanup work. The rest of the nation needs to know that shootings, prostitution, gang activity, other murders, drug addiction, people sleeping under the bridges etc. runs rampant here. And they need to know that it is getting worse, and how bad it is around the area where the new NBA games will be. This is just a real FAMILY friendly city isnt it, when you have to explain nude dancer signs, people with signs begging for money, people hanging outside of homeless shelters, drive by shootings, gangs, prostitutes on the streets etc. The PR work for this city should include maps showing where not to drive, areas in which not to buy homes, a crime scene map etc. Why arent these things brought out when endorsing the city? Not everyone likes basketball, baseball and bars. That is the 3 B's of OKC. I would rather do the 3 B's of NW Arkansas. A sad state, a sad city, but no one on the outside knows, and no one on the inside cares.